KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8 — Segambut MP Hannah today described the persistent remarks by two federal deputy ministers that Sabah undergraduate Veveonah Mosibin had faked taking her online university exams atop a tree as cyberbullying.

The former deputy women, family and community development minister was responding to the responses yesterday by Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin and Deputy Minister of Finance I Abdul Rahim Bakri after drawing public ire on social media with their initial comments against Veveonah.

"If you don’t recognise it — this is cyberbullying in action by two deputy ministers against a young child,” she tweeted.

Yeoh also upbraided Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Rina Harun and the latter’s deputy Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff for their silence on the matter.

"Again silence from women minister and her deputy,” she added.

Zahidi has come under fire for his remarks in the senate last week suggesting Veveonah was an attention seeker and had faked having to take an online examination in a tree in rural Sabah due to poor internet connectivity.

The Padang Besar MP from Umno has since apologised and yesterday named Kudat MP Abdul Rahim Bakri from Bersatu as his source of information.

Abdul Rahim continued to take a defensive stance, insisting his investigation showed no examinations were conducted online in June and cited a Universiti Malaysia Sabah faculty member as his source.

He added that Veveonah is not a resident of Kampung Sepatalang as she claimed, though the 18-year-old has explained that she was staying there temporarily during the movement control order to help her family.

She has also publicly shared her examination schedule on social media to back her assertion of university exams between June 9 and June 12.

Abdul Rahim has since removed his Facebook posting on Veveonah.